Ten months after a committee set up by the University of Mumbai (MU) submitted a report claiming that 15 per cent to 20 per cent of the text in a book written by the principal of Ulhasnagar’s Chandibai Himatlal Mansukhani College resembles a book authored by an American, the college management has said it was yet to receive a copy of the report, and hence, has not taken any action against the principal. Manju Lalwani Pathak is the principal of the college managed by Hyderabad (Sind) National Collegiate Board, which also governs Kishinchand Chellaram College and Hassaram Rijhumal College of Commerce & Economics College, among others. On September 6, 2017, Citizen Forum For Sanctity in Education System — an organisation run by Thane BJP MLA Sanjay Kelkar — had complained to MU that Pathak’s book, Retail Management (New Perspective), published by Universal Publishing House in 2015, was a plagiarised version of author Rosemary Varley’s Retail Product Management. The book was published in 2001 by Routledge. Rosemary is at present a faculty at the London College of Fashion. Following this, based on the instructions of Chancellor Ch Vidyasagar Rao, the MU had set up a three-member committee to probe the matter. It comprised former K J Somaiya Science and Commerce College principal Dr Vijay Joshi, former CKT College principal Dr S T Gadade and faculty Smita Shukla of Alkesh Dinesh Mody Institute for Financial and Management Studies. The committee found that 80 per cent text of Pathak’s book was plagiarised from Varley’s book. When summoned by the committee, Pathak, on January 29, 2018, claimed that the published book was not what she had sent to the publisher for publishing. She submitted another book to the MU, which she claimed was the original manuscript. This, also published by the Universal Publishing House, had the same ISBN (International Standard Book Number) as that of the first version of the book. However, this book, too, was found to have 15 per cent to 20 per cent plagiarised content, albeit it acknowledged Varley’s contribution. On October 26, 2018, MU got an FIR registered against the publisher. According to the guidelines published by the UGC (Promotion of Academic Integrity and Prevention of Plagiarism in Higher Education Institutions) Regulations, 2018, authors whose work bear similarities above 10 per cent to 40 per cent shall be asked to withdraw manuscript submitted for application. When contacted, Pathak refused to comment on the matter.
